Saturday, July 26, 2008

Welcome to Day Five in our examination of the 'Doctor Who' episode "Turn Left". We're certainly feasting when just two weeks ago we were in a famine phase, wondering if we could dredge up enough stories to get us through day by day!

But after we've exhausted this study of "Turn Left", there's still the two-part finale to come; the first part of which finally aired in America last night!

With this run of "Turn Left" Tiddlywinkydinks, we're looking at those episodes of 'Doctor Who' which were set in the past and which should have had dire effects for the Earth if the Doctor was no longer alive to be the planet's guardian. (That premise was established in the episode "Turn Left".)

The world could have been - SHOULD have been! - destroyed several times over if the Doctor had not stepped in to save the day. So why did the basic set-up of daily life in London seem so normal for Donna Noble at the beginning of "Turn Left"?

Unlike the episodes which I looked at on Thursday, I don't think these four historical episodes (and two of the three suggested) could have been rectified on their own. The villains involved were all too powerful and should have wreaked havoc which would have made an impact to the present day.

So I think somebody else stepped in to take care of matters in each episode. And this being about Toobworld, I think those somebodies would be from other TV shows!

It's time to move on to the next episode in the broadcast order, and it's a two-parter.....

"DALEKS IN MANHATTAN""EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS"In the original timeline, the Doctor and Martha arrived in New York City in November of 1930 to find that the Daleks were using the Empire State Building (which was still under construction) in their master plan. They were going to use the building as an energy focal point to create a hybrid race combining the genetics of Dalek with human.During the Doctor's attempt to stop them, many people died, including the homeless living in a tent city in Central Park. By nearly sacrificing his own life, the Doctor was able to destroy all but one Dalek - Caan - who escaped through an emergency Time vortex. Because there were so few survivors, word of the crisis never became public knowledge; and what the official organizations like the FBI and the New York police department did learn of the Daleks, they kept classified.

But what if the Doctor wasn't there to free the Empire State Building and eliminate the threat of the Dalek race and their disgusting hybrids? Why didn't we see more Dalek-headed people wandering around London in Donna's revised world of "Turn Left"? The pepperpots had over seventy years to create their new race; they should have been global and pervasive by then.Luckily, a couple of heroes from another sci-fi show just happened to be in town.....

In the twenty-third century, Dr. Leonard McCoy, chief medical officer on board the starship Enterprise, would be driven mad by an accidental overdose injection of medicine. He beamed himself off the ship and fled through a time portal known as the Guardian of the Gate of Forever into Earth's past. His actions caused the universe as Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock knew it to cease forever. (They were protected by being within the aura of the Guardian at the time the change occurred. But all those who had been in the Enterprise orbiting above vanished with the new timeline.

Kirk and McCoy went back in Time to about a week before McCoy made his entrance into the Past - to New York City in 1930. While waiting for "Bones" to show up, Kirk made the acquaintance of a forward-thinking social worker named Edith Keeler and fell in love with her. Then Spock hit him with the news that the fate of the world centered on Miss Keeler - if she should live, the United States would delay entry into World War II and Hitler would win, which would ultimately cause the destruction of the Earth. Edith Keeler had to die in the next few days to keep the timeline on its correct path and somehow McCoy had interfered with that. It would be up to Kirk and Spock to stop the doctor, which would mean Edith would be dead.

So all went according to plan: Edith was struck by a truck, and Kirk kept McCoy from saving her. When they passed back through the temporal arch of the Guardian, the universe had been restored to the way it once was.But who's to say that the Trek trio went home immediately to the Future?

Now that they no longer had to concentrate on the problem with McCoy and Edith Keeler, Mr. Spock would probably have taken the time to get some readings of their 1930 surroundings to bring back for historical research. And his tricorder - once put back together after being used as a time-scope - would surely have picked up readings of there being Daleks in the vicinity.The 'Doctor Who' two-parter took place November 1st of 1930, but that doesn't mean the involvement of the three Enterprise officers had to happen at the same time. (We only know it was in 1930.) But it could have been November; people are wearing coats during the episode.

(The reason why they didn't get involved as it originally played out could be due to the Doctor eliminating the problem before Spock had a chance to use his tricorder to detect the presence of the Daleks. So they just headed on home.)

Between the three of them, armed with phasers, I think they'd be more than a match for these Daleks. The aliens might have been fearsome against the homeless, but against warriors from the future, armed with phasers? No need to aim for their eye-stalks when you've got those little killers!

And they wouldn't have been alone in their attempts to destroy the Daleks. The battle would probably have lasted long enough to draw the attention of the NYPD, and several cops we know from other TV shows might have joined in the battle. (Although many of them - at least the ones who had no future in Toobworld! - would fall against the Daleks' superior weaponry.)

With the version of 'Ellery Queen' which I think works best for Earth Prime-Time, with Jim Hutton as Ellery, the series took place in 1946/1947. I think it's easy enough to believe that Ellery's dad Richard Queen had been an inspector on the New York Police force all of that time. He could have been in charge, coordinating the used of the patrolmen to attack the Daleks throughout the Empire State Building. So it's likely he was out of harm's way for most of the battle and thus survived.

Patrick Muldoon was the father of Francis Muldoon who would one day become a cop himself. And it's a Toobworld Theory of Relateeveety that he was also the father of an illegitimate black son who would also grow up to be a cop, who would one day meet the Clampetts. (And his name would be Patrick as well.)It's unknown if Patrick and Dan Muldoon were related.

The Daleks in Manhattan took place about 28 years before we met Dan Muldoon and a few more before we met Mike Parker. Both of them were probably patrolmen and it's possible they could have died at the scene. And the same would go for Patrick Muldoon. This would O'Bviously affect the futures of their shows as well, although Patrick Muldoon technically didn't have his own series; that honor goes to his son. And as Francis Muldoon was already born by this point in Time, and since his father was dead by the time we met him, then Patrick's death at the Empire State Building attack would have had a minimal impact on the Future.

Not much is known about Sgt. Gilhooley, save that he served as a mentor for a young cop named Columbo. I have no idea how old he might have been in 1930, or indeed how old he was when he worked with Columbo on the NY police force. But I imagine he was a beat cop like the others back in 1930. If he died during this battle, then he wouldn't have been able to make a difference in Columbo's career later on.

(I like to keep things tidy and make connections between shows where none existed before; that there should be some sort of link between characters - like on 'Lost'. So why can't we consider Sgt. Gilhooley to have been the police officer who encountered Kirk and Spock when they first arrived in 1930?)

Once the police were involved, others whose lives centered around the Law, Justice, and defense of the United States would have come to help out as quickly as possible. Even Philip Marlowe might have given an assist if he could, helping the cops who more often than not would have been hassling him in his line of work.

And then there would be Phil Corrigan, a young spy working for the government who had been given the code classification of "Secret Agent X-9". His organization may have already been aware of the Dalek infiltration by the time that the Doctor got involved in the original timeline. And the Time Lord had everything sorted by the time they were ready to move in, which is why we didn't see them get involved. But this time, they'd have to strike fast in order to keep the situation contained.

If Secret Agent X-9 did survive the battle against the Daleks, he would one day become the head of the CIA. Perhaps at some point during the fight he and that cop named Gilhooley were able to lay down cover for each other so that they could get out of some tight situation. And little would they know that one day they would both have to deal with a rumpled cop named Columbo.

Whoever survived the battle, it's clear that they succeeded. But just as it was in the original timeline, Dalek Caan would get away. Because otherwise there would be no way for him to - well, that would be telling......

PSFor the purpose of this post, I had Phil Corrigan ten years older than the actor who played him in 'Columbo' - David White, better known as Larry Tate in 'Bewitched'. This would have made him 69 when he ordered Columbo off the investigation into Nelson Brenner, an acceptable age for a man in such a high office. And with that magnificently sculpted head of white hair, he could easily pull off the age difference.....

Just An Old Cowhand On The TiVo Grande

As the Trickster once said, "Reality is boring, that's why I change it whenever I can."
I'm just "The Man Who Viewed Too Much", and "Inner Toob" is a blog exploring and celebrating the 'reality' of an alternate universe in which everything that ever happened on TV actually takes place.
Most of my theories about the TV Universe come from thinking inside the box and thus can't be proven. But I've never been one to shy away from a tall tale.....
Remember: "The more you watch, the more you've seen!"